The Hills are Alive, but the Fish is Dead

In reply to my request for interesting blogging topics, Blackcrag said:

All you really have to do is wait... at least one of your kids is bound to give you a topic sooner or later. If not them, then your pets, and if not them, then your husband. Your family is too wacky to leave you bereft of material for long. But if you want an assignment, I'll give you a photo essay: I need a fix of some western mountains, and if I can't be there in person then I'll come begging at your door for some kind of substitute. So, get thy camera, and on a sunny day go take picture of mountains! And tell us any stories you have involving mountains.

Well, Black -- although it's snowy and beautiful in Seattle today and I could probably snap an amazing photo if I were willing to get in the car and drive a few miles, I'm feeling lazy today. (Fine! I hate driving in this stuff, all right?!).

So how about a photo of my favorite mountains on earth, the Bavarian Alps? This one was taken on the road from my favorite town on earth, Ruhpolding, to Salzburg, by way of Ramsau, which is also pictured.




And you must know my family well, Black, because you were absolutely correct that someone would do something wacky!

Poor Tom. Poor, poor D.B. Sweeney lookalike Tom! (Thanks, BlogAntagonist; we used to often hear that he's a Tom Cruise lookalike too...)

Last night Tom changed the water in my new little fish tank and then went on to change the water in his own big 50 gallon tank, which contained some small schooling fish that he'd adopted (read: purchased) the previous day. To change the water in his tank, Tom uses something like an underwater vacuum apparatus.

(You see where this is going, don't you?)

Now, in order for this story to have its full emotional effect you have to fully appreciate my husband's very soft, very squishy heart. Tom literally couldn't hurt a fly. He is an absolute softy when it comes to animals and kids (and just about everything else for that matter!), to the point that he will politely usher the scariest of spiders gently and sweetly out the door and why he is, come to think of it, anything but a strict disciplinarian.

(You know how there's always one nice parent? Yeah, that'd be Tom...)

So when Tom came upstairs and uttered my name with that long drawn out "Caaaaaarol??" (posed as a question to elicit immediate sympathy), I knew something was wrong -- and I knew he felt horribly guilty about whatever it was, because after knowing each other for 31 (gulp!) years and being married for almost 25, even the slightest "tone of voice" elicits huge amounts of information. Yup, it was guilt all right.

"I think I just flushed a fish down the toilet!" Tom exclaimed. "I was just spacing out and not paying attention and I think I vacuumed the poor thing up and flushed it down the toilet! I think good ol' Walter took one for the team." Naming his fish on the spot was, of course, a ploy to make me feel just as badly as he did, because he knows that once it has a name I'll attempt to mommy it.

We discussed the size of minnow brains in an attempt to convince ourselves that Walter never knew what hit him, but we still felt bad for poor Walter. At that exact moment he was probably... well, we decided to watch French Kiss instead of worry too much about poor Walter's minute-to-minute demise.

But when Tom's first utterance this morning was, "I feel badly about Walter," I knew this would bother him for a while.

So our family, which increased by five(ish) last weekend is down by one today because poor, poor Walter gave one (LIFE!) for the team.

Prompt Me!

Help me!

I've been sucked into the black hole of blogging: I have come to the end of the universe of blogging topics.

That's right -- I'm completely devoid of ideas.

Spent.

Empty.

Barren.

Please -- rescue me! Throw me an idea (or three) and help me escape from this writer's hell! I'd be (ahem) eternally grateful...

Here -- I'll help you: "Carol, you should write about..."

"Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!"

Not that we needed anymore animals around here, but Tom finally replaced the fish that he lost from his 50 gallon tank during the big '06 windstorm (when we were in Hawaii), and he gave me his "baby tank" for my new home office. When Boo discovered the new pets, he was intrigued for about a minute... then took a nap.

I, on the other hand, went around the house calling, "Here fishy, fishy, fishy!" for a few hours. No reply.

Yes, Sesame Street vignettes are still recalled fondly around here! Remember this one?

A (Beautiful) Voice From the Past

Remember when I wondered how my friend Courtney Campbell might be doing?

I met Courtney many (many) years ago when she was performing at local L.A. elementary schools. I fell in love with her music, her knack for storytelling, her love for children, and her spirit, and I introduced her to Dan Crow, with whom I was working at Disney. (Dan's music was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Milo and Otis, among other places.) Courtney and Dan worked together on a few projects, and Courtney also went out on her own, releasing a few CDs and working on proposals to do her own kids' show.

Courtney became an important part of my kids' childhoods, and when she sang lullabies and silly songs like Mustard Pancakes and Red Raincoat, the rooms of our house -- and the kids' faces -- were filled with magic. When we moved from Southern California to Washington State, we didn't have to wait long before Courtney "followed" us, and we hung out with her a few more times. Then she got big in Europe and began to spend quite a bit of time abroad. At the same time, our kids grew up and we slowly (and sadly) lost touch.

Until this morning, when we received a completely unexpected call from Courtney! She'd found an old phone number of ours and called it, expecting it to be "disconnected or no longer in service." But lo and behold, we're still here, and I'm was so happy (and surprised) to hear from her! We chatted for a while and she was shocked that all the kids have grown so quickly -- as has her son, who now has a family of his own and works in Hollywood.

Courtney did finally get her own show, and can also be found at www.courneycampbell.com. If you have young children, or are just young at heart yourself, check her out. And if you're in Europe (as well as the U.S. of course), keep an eye out for her, as she's heading out on tour again. You'll love her!

Oh, and tell her I sent you!

I Don't Get It!

Wouldn't that be more than 100%?

My Regret

This post will take me a very long time to type because instead of using only two fingers, I'm using all ten. See? Just typing that sentence took me about ten minutes! (I could also attribute it to the fact that I haven't had coffee yet, but won't...)

Last night I bought a gizmo that raises my laptop up and pretty much forces me to type while looking straight ahead (otherwise defeating the purpose and wasting money), so I finally decided that it's time that I stop this insanely fast two-finger stuff and learn to type like a real writer.

(Yeah, I know that many ''real writers" are two finger typers, but let's not muddle this!)

Unlike my own kids, I was neither forced, nor even really encouraged, to learn to type. In third grade, when my own kids were taught keyboarding, I was handwriting sentence after sentence from the red Zaner-Bloser booklet, dipping my j's with just the right flair and dotting my i's with just a hint if a curly-que, in anticipation of being 14.

By the time I was a senior in high school and I had gotten the "important" classes out of the way, I finally had time to take typing -- except that typing was offered only first period and I didn't have another class until 4th period. And because sleep was vastly more important than a class I surely wouldn't need because I wasn't going to be a secretary, I dropped typing after a few short weeks.

Ah, how times have changed, and oh how I wish that I had taken typing!

Somehow I got through college and a 20-something year career without ever learning to type with all ten fingers, and with no one ever complaining that I typed too slowly. But this is ridiculous! I mean really!

So see that colorful print-out taped to my desk? That's my teacher until I learn to type with all ten fingers and without looking at the keyboard!

I have a feeling it's going to be a long day...

Well Blow Me Down!

The West Coast is known for earthquakes, and Washington State is known for rain and windstorms, but we're not normally concerned about tornadoes around here.



You can imagine the surprise people felt when they heard about this doozie that struck our lovely state yesterday! Now I can't get the "witch on a bicycle" music from the Wizard of Oz out of my head...

Being Bailey

It's grueling work, buy hey -- someone's gotta do it!